(Riverton, WY) – Riverton Middle School will offer a hunter safety course starting in November.
RMS Principal Aziz Waheed presented at the Tuesday evening Riverton School Board meeting.
“So one of the things we’re striving to do at the middle school is just offer more and more opportunities for kids to get involved,” Waheed said.
8th Grade Science Teacher Brady Samuelson got certified to teach the hunter safety course this summer through a three-day course the Game and Fish put on at the Conservation Center at Whiskey Mountain.
Samuelson, Waheed and RMS Assistant Principal Tyler Jordan will all teach the course.
“So hunter safety is a big part of kids in our county,” Waheed continued. “It’s a big part of trying to get kids off of devices and off the computer screens and just get out and enjoy what we have to offer in our area.”
The course will be offered after school hours, making it more convenient for parents.
They’re required to do 12 to 18 hours, and there is a field test.
“We have talked to Game and Fish,” Waheed explained. “They’re gonna lend us they’re not real rifles. They’re bright orange, (and) they don’t have firing pins. They’re not weaponized. So we still want to teach that part. That’s a critical, critical component of hunter safety is making sure that our kids are learning the proper and safe techniques to handle these (rifles). And so that will still be a field component will still be something we do. We just will not do the live firing part. Which is okay again, officials said they’ll still be certified. They’ll provide us all the material. We essentially just have to get a number of participants forwarded to them. They’ll send us the correct amount of material we present it, and so they’re super excited that more and more schools are getting on board. We’ve been working on this for a while so we’re excited for the opportunity and want to do it again in the spring.”
Waheed also noted that if all goes well in this first year, they might open it up to fifth graders next year.
You can watch the full presentation here.